Not weak anymore
by inuluvskags1
Summary: Kagome has decided that she is tired of being the one who always has to be protected and she's going to do something about it. Time to get stronger.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha.**

**Not weak anymore**

******Chapter one**

Everything has been going so wrong for her these past few days, nothing seemed right. It seemed that lately she wasn't good enough at _anything_, like every single thing she did every damned day would have been done better by anybody else. And to make things worse, Inuyasha had gone off to see his past lover earlier that day, and had not stopped comparing her to Kikyo ever since! It was just not fair, why couldn't she be more useful to her friends? Why was she the one who ALWAYS needed to be protected during battle? Why? Because she was **weak**, Kagome thought bitterly, clumsy, stupid and stubborn. She would never be the first girl in Inuyasha's heart, would never be the one he yearned for, the one he could seek comfort in. Never. Kikyo held that place in his heart and it will always remain that way. Why was she even there? She could be easily replaced by Kikyo, without a doubt she would do a much better job than her at finding the scattered shards of the jewel. She could leave and wouldn't ever be missed.

Kagome sighed at the thought of leaving, it would be nice to be what she wanted to be, not what was expected of her to be _'I must not think that way, I will not give up, I won't be beaten' _she encouraged herself _'I need more training to control my spiritual powers, knowledge in healing, and it would be great if I could manage to learn to defend myself with more than one weapon and without one as well.' _So she decided, she would not go without a fight, she would master any kind of self defense training anyone could offer, she could train with Kaede, Miroku and Sango, maybe train in her time as well _'I could join the archery club'_ she bit her lip in thought _'I could take classes in self defense with Mira-chan and Haku' _she even pondered on taking a first-aid class in her time.

She had been unusually quiet all morning, only letting out the occasional sigh once in a while, lost in her own thoughts; the group was becoming increasingly worried for their suddenly silent companion and did not know what to do about the silence engulfing them all, that is… until Shippo decided to speak his thoughts "When are we stopping for lunch? I'm starving" as if to prove his point, his stomach grumbled loudly afterwards "Keh, we're stopping here then, runt" Inuyasha grumbled and turned to Kagome "Oi wench, make me some ramen, will ya?" they were expecting an angry miko yelling OSUWARI! But all they got was a small nod in response to the rather rude demand, and then the miko got to work and started the fire to boil the water for instant noodles, got the cups and chopsticks out of her over-stuffed yellow bag, finally Kagome poured the, now boiling, water into them as she set them out for the group to settle down and eat. After their meal, Inuyasha decided that it was time to get a move on if they were to reach a village by nightfall. But the only reason Kagome complied without a fight, was because she wanted to buy some stuff in the village with the money she had been earning on her trips to Kaede's village for helping the village women with their daily chores, she preferred to keep silent about it though, there was no reason for her friends to know yet and besides, she wanted to surprise them.

As it turns out, they did manage to reach a village a few hours before sunset and while the rest of the group wandered off to do their own thing, Kagome had found a nice little tailor's shop filled with all kinds of traditional Japanese clothing, ranging from yukata, to kimono, to hakama and haori. She marveled at the feel of the smooth fabric they were made of, and the beautiful designs on them also caught her eyes attention _'Now's my chance to look for some decent outfits to fight in… maybe some to travel in too; heaven knows all the stares my uniform attracts' _Kagome looked down at her old, dirty, slightly torn school uniform _'It's definitely seen much better days'_ She was startled out of her thoughts by an soft sounding voice"Excuse me miss, do you need something?" looking up from the kimono she had been touching, she saw a lady who looked to be in her late forties, watching her curiously from the other side of the shop "Oh um… I am looking for a fighting kimono; do you happen to have one of those?" the woman nodded enthusiastically, eyes brightening at the mere thought of clothes "Of course, I think I have just the one for you, wait here for a moment while I go get it." With that said, she wandered off to what Kagome guessed was a storage room. A few minutes passed and the lady emerged with one of the most gorgeous kimono the young time traveler had ever laid her eyes on _'Oh my goodness'_ It was a light blue color with dark blue orchids fluttering across the sleeves, front and back; it had slits that would reach up to mid thigh, the woman also carried a pair of matching plain blue hakama "Go ahead and try it on so I can see if adjustments need to be made. You can change over there" she pointed to a screen door that lead to another room **(it's a reeeeeallllly big shop) **After a bit of talking, Kagome learned that the woman's name was Hana and that the kimono would be ready by morning, meaning she would have to get up extra early if she wanted to go and return unnoticed by her friends, so Kagome paid and went off to browse some of the weapons for sale. In the end after negotiating with the vendors, she managed to get a new quiver full of arrows, a few daggers and throwing knives. By the time she was done putting away all of her purchases, making sure they were hidden safely within her bag except the quiver full of arrows, the sun was already setting and she sensed Inuyasha's aura rapidly approaching so hoisting her bag onto her shoulders she turned to face him. "Where the hell have you been wench? I've been looking all over for ya! You could've gotten your weak self kidnapped for all I know" he glared at her before continuing "C'mon let's go back to the inn, the others are already there"

That night, Kagome thought of ways to ask Inuyasha for her to stay for a month in her time to "battle some tests" but what she would really be doing was way different. She would train with one of the most ruthless martial arts teacher in Japan, which happened to be a good friend of hers, she would trained with weapons by her cousin and when she returned she would take up meditation with Miroku to enhance and hone her spiritual powers, she would train said spiritual powers with Kaede, finally she would finish her combat training with Sango _'looks like I got my work cut out for me' _she decided she would think about it in the morning, now it was time to sleep.


	2. Chapter 2

**Not weak anymore **

**Chapter two: Moving slowly**

_Kagome's Point of view_

I woke up when the sun's rays were barely visible in the sky, the stars and moon slowly fading away as the light of day came _'why am I up so early?' _Memories of the kind woman named Hana and of the beautiful fighting kimono I purchased the day before came back to me as I looked at my companions, Inuyasha among them, sleeping peacefully._'Luck must be on my side, Inuyasha is still sleeping! But how the heck am I supposed to sneak out of here and return without waking him up?' _ I almost started panicking, but reminding myself that it would do no good, I decided to calm down and take a few deep breaths before quietly standing up and tip-toeing over to pick up my huge yellow backpack and steadily making my way to the sliding screen doors; almost out of the room completely until I heard the sound of one of my friends shifting and yawning _'I knew that was too good to be true'_ "Kagome?" I heard a drowsy-sounding voice say, I smiled, it was Shippo's voice. "Yeah?" I whispered "where are you going?" he asked quietly "I'm going out for a bit, don't worry I'll be back in time to eat breakfast, but don't tell anyone I was gone ok?" a slightly pleading undertone to my voice "Ok" was all he said before falling back asleep. I chuckled slightly when I made it out of the room, Shippo was so cute!

I reached my destination in record time and poked my head through the doorway only to see Hana folding several articles of clothing and placing them all in their designated spots in the shop "Good morning, Hana-san" I said, making her look up from her chore and smile at me kindly before greeting me with her own "Good morning Kagome-san, are you here to pick up your kimono and hakama?" I nodded while smiling at the thought of the newly purchased articles of clothing "Yes, I am departing today, so I came as soon as I could to pick them up" As I told her this she had already moved to the other side of the shop where I assumed she kept the kimono and hakama and started sorting through a pile of neatly folded clothing _'Such a kind woman' _"Here you go Kagome-san, you don't want to keep your... companions waiting" She said, though she looked a bit worried _'Probably because some of them are demons' _I mussed "Thanks for everything Hana-san, I'll come by the shop next time we come by the village, bye!" I didn't get to see her reaction, as I was already running at top speed back to the inn but I am certain I hear her shout "Be careful!" and "Come back soon!"

When I was finally inside the room our group had stayed the night in, was when I realized that the clothing I had purchased was still in my hands so I quickly stuffed it at the bottom of my yellow backpack, hoping that no one was awake and had seen it. To my relief, everyone was still asleep, seeing as I had woken up really early and hadn't been gone very long _'Does Hana seriously wake up everyday at this hour?' _The mere thought of waking up at this hour almost made me groan _'Inuyasha, I swear that I shall never complain again when you wake me up' _Deciding to take advantage of the early morning, I went to gather our scattered belongings and placing them into my 'monstrous' yellow backpack as my mother would say and trying to find something to entertain myself with while I waited for my friends to wake up; I settled for planning my next trip back home, which included _telling_ Inuyasha I would be staying for a month, since he wasn't my keeper, I wouldn't ask him, I could go without telling him... though I would have to listen to his rant when I got back _'I'd rather not waste precious time listening to him shout at me and risk being compared to Kikyo again, but I could use that as an excuse to spend more time in my era to train, even though I'll end up getting emotionally hurt... again' _I almost sighed at what I would have to endure, even though I constantly reminded myself that after all, this was so I could become stronger and no longer be a burden while fighting, no longer wasting my friends' time and possibly endangering them in a fight if I had to be protected _'I'll be able to protect myself, Kaede says I'm a fast learner so that might help my training' _ I knew if I wanted to surprise my friends that I would have to go about my change slowly, I would have to wear my new kimono and hakama when I was completely sure I could fight on my own like Sango or Miroku could, an abrupt change like that would be just plain boring. My thoughts continued on the same subject until the first of my friends woke from her slumber, Sango looked surprised that I was already awake, but said nothing of it, instead she said "Good morning Kagome-chan" "Good morning Sango-chan, did you sleep well?" "Mmhm" our conversation then went on, the topics ranging from perverted monks and irate half demons, to weapons and demons in general. How we ended up talking about weapons and demons was beyond me, but it was interesting and I was absorbing all of the information like a sponge.

By the time all of us were up and heading out of the village, the sun was already high in the sky, its warm rays making me close my eyes in content _'What a nice day this turned out to be... To bad it will be ruined when I tell Inuyasha I am going home and staying there for a month'_ I looked over to him and let out a small, inaudible sigh that was probably easily picked up by Inuyasha's now twitching ears _'Here goes nothing' _I sped up so I could walk next to the hanyo, it made it easier to talk to him "Hey... Inuyasha?" I started "What wench?" I huffed a bit at the name, but continued without commenting on it, it wouldn't do good to make him too mad "I just wanted to tell you that I will be going back home soon an-" he cut me off "What! No wench, we've got shards to find and in case you've forgotten, it's YOUR fault that the jewel is broken in the first place!" He just had to mention that, didn't he? Why couldn't he stop rubbing that in? I know that I'm the one responsible for the jewel's current state... but that didn't mean that it does not hurt me every time he says it and besides, I'm here on my own accord, I could have left months ago but I stayed, to repair the jewel... and because of my feelings towards Inuyasha. I didn't say that even though I really wanted to so instead I said "I know that it is my fault that the jewel is broken Inuyasha and that it is my responsibility to put it back together, but that doesn't mean that I no longer have responsibilities in my time, I've always had them and I have to fulfill those too if I want to ensure my future there because once the jewel is complete and Naraku is defeated, I will have to go back to my own time for good" I missed the pained expression on his face and the surprised ones of my friends as I continued "I won't be able to stay here forever" _'No matter how much I want to'_ as much as I wanted to stay in the feudal era, I couldn't, my family already suffers everyday wondering if I will come back and come to think of it it has been a while since I was home. "Whatever girl, you're not going home 'cause as I said before we've still got shards to find" He bit out angrily "Inuyasha I am not asking permission, I am telling you, I am going home, I'm staying there for a month to catch up on school work" I was pretty sure I had a vein popping on my forehead in annoyance "A MONTH! No way in hell wench! You're staying here and that's it!" He said, practically _growling_ at me '_oh no you don't puppy' _

"Yes, I am!"

"No, you're not!"

"Yes!"

"No!"

"YES, INUYASHA I'M GOING HOME AND THERE IS NOTHING YOU CAN DO ABOUT IT!"

"HA! As if I'm gonna let you go back, Kikyo wouldn't have gone home like some wimp, she would've put finding the jewel shards before anything el-" "SIT BOY!" I could feel my face beginning to heat up "Sit sit sit sit sit SIT DAMNIT!" _'so much for not getting angry'_ I turned on my heels and walked to my nervous-looking friends, I took a deep breath to calm my ire and asked "Sango-chan, is it alright if Kirara took me to the well?" I looked at the twin-tailed fire cat "Sure, take care Kagome-chan" Kirara pounced off of her previous perch on the demon slayer's shouder and on to the ground where she transformed into her larger form, gesturing with her head at me to get on, which made me smile a bit _'Smart kitty' _A few good bye's were said and then I was of on Kirara's back on our way to the well.

**Ok bad ending but I wanted to save what I was going to write next for chapter 3 which hopefully won't take to long to write. **

**On another note, I posted a poll on my profile, since I've been wanting to do an Inuyasha crossover, but I wasn't sure on what other anime it should be about... Please vote and**

**Review!**


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